Welcome back to another Fabulous Find. This week I’m repeating/reprinting, with some editing, one of my all time, favorite, Fabulous Finds; the 1967, or possibly 1968, Marx Marvel Super Hero Express Train. I’ve heard that this is considered the Holy Grail of Marvel Collectibles. According to the 2007 Marvel Silver Age Collectibles book by J. Ballman, it can easily sell for 3,000 to 4,000 dollars in nice condition. Maybe even more now, nine (9) years later. Here’s what the train looks like from both sides. As you can see each side has it own separate/different graphics:
Unfortunately, mine isn’t in quite as excellent condition. In fact, mine is missing the last car, but I only paid fifteen (15) dollars for mine! So all in all, I’ve got a pretty cool, rare collectible at a fraction of the cost.
I love the choice of heroes and villains represented on the train cars. There are the obvious ones, Captain America, Iron Man and Thor on the tops of the train cars. But the ones on the sides include, Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, Hawkeye and the Hulk.
Villains represented are the Green Goblin, the Red Skull, the Gladiator, Number One and the Owl, though he is misidentified as Matthew Murdock. Wow, that seems like it shouldn’t have happened! But it did!
Here’s a picture of my train, as I said, it’s missing the last car:
If anyone happens to have the last car, I would definitely be interested in talking to you about purchasing it from you, but that is not the reason for posting about this Marvel collectible. My original post was two and a half years ago, in in that time no one has come forward with that last car for sale or trade, so I doubt I’ll ever own the complete train. But who knows? It could happen!
I have never seen another one of these for sale in all my days of collecting, and until I purchased Ballman’s book, I didn’t even know for sure that my train was missing a car, but you know what? I don’t even care! I’ve had my train on a shelf in front of my Marvel Masterwork books for years and years and I still love it!
So hopefully, the few readers that remember this post, will forgive me for reposting (with edits) and hopefully the many more readers of today, will get to see a collectible that is rare and that they might never had seen otherwise.
Thanks for stopping by for this week’s Fabulous Find and hopefully, you’ll return next week for another RETRO REVIEW. Til then, enjoy this Holiday weekend and see you soon!
